In the field of furniture, it is known to use snap hinges adapted for the rotation of a closure element about a hinge axis, such as for example snap hinges used to open and close doors on cabinets arranged inside caravans or the like. These snap hinges with two articulated quadrilaterals are provided with appropriately arranged elastic means, such as for example snap hinges described in patents EP 1741860 and EP 1653029, in order to keep the door in the stable closed equilibrium position so as to prevent its accidental opening, for example, when the caravan or the like is moving or on a curve, avoiding the consequent escape of the content from the cabinet.
In the final steps of opening and closing, the elastic means tend to push the door toward the stable equilibrium position and, especially during closure, rapidly contract the snap hinges into the closure position, suddenly drawing back the door, which, if not restrained with one's hand, strikes the cabinet violently.
For obviating this drawback, damping devices are known which are adapted to slow the closure of the door onto the cabinet so as to prevent the final step of the closure of said door from occurring violently. In particular, said damping devices comprise a tube damper the two ends of which, connected respectively to the door and to the cabinet, can move alternately toward or away from each other more slowly, thus avoiding the collision of the two elements during closure.
These known types of damping devices are not free from drawbacks, which include the fact that they limit laterally the access to the content of the cabinet. To ensure an optimum opening angle of the door, the first end of the tube damper is in fact connected to the internal side wall of the cabinet and the second end is connected to the internal surface of the door. During opening, the tube damper, in the fully extended condition, restricts with its bulk the access to the internal part of the cabinet, a limitation which is not negligible in confined spaces such as for example in caravans or the like.
This drawback is partly obviated by a damping device that can be installed exclusively on the internal surface of the cabinet, as described for example in PCT/IT2011/000187 in the name of the same inventor of the present application and in patent applications EP1460219 and EP1609936. In particular, these devices comprise a main body that can be installed on the internal surface of the cabinet from which a piston protrudes which is damped by compression and is designed to make contact, with one of its free ends, with the internal surface of the door during closure. In particular, during the final closure step the piston is compressed by the door, passing from an extended position to a compressed position more slowly, restraining the closing door and avoiding a violent collision.
However, even these devices of the known type, with their bulk, restrict front access to the content of the cabinet. Their placement inside the cabinet, so as to make contact with the closing door, in fact is a hindrance for the insertion and extraction of objects inside said cabinet. This drawback can be observed to a greater extent in the presence of small cabinets, such as for example in caravans or the like, in which all the useful space available is utilized in the best possible way, and in which access, which is already limited due to the dimensions of said cabinet, might not be feasible due to the presence of the damping devices.
Another drawback of these devices of the known type resides in that they require an additional step of installation, increasing considerably the final production costs. The normal steps of installation of doors on cabinets are in fact by now completely automated and the insertion of an additional step of installation of the damping device requires the addition of an expensive manual step of installation or insertion of a new automatic step, requiring expensive modifications to the automation currently in use.